Revised Kansas City Truancy Ordinance Passes

Kansas City, Missouri has a truancy ordinance as of Thursday afternoon, but it doesn't portend to change the daytime curfew policy.

Some council members expressed concerns about the revised truancy ordinance, and one was that the Kansas City School District might abandon all responsibility for school-skippers and dump it on the city and the police department.

Mayor Sly James's answer to that was. “We've kept the school district and the city separate for so long that in my opinion we have done damage to the children that both the city and the school district are supposed to protect.”

Council members Brooks, Curls and Reed still had concerns about fairness to low-income parents, but the measure passed, 10-3.

Parents of kids that duck out on school could face fines up to $500, but there would be a first-offense warning and alternatives to the fines, such as counseling.

The measure would primarily rely on the school district reporting which kids repeatedly truant to the police, who would mail out violation citations to the parents.